If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past 6 months it’s that being a supervisor is harder than it looks. It’s easy to give advice on what a supervisor should do but it’s much more difficult to be in the situation.
Time Consuming
In addition to worrying about yourself and your career you have to worry about others and their career. After coming back from my recent vacation I couldn’t just check in with my supervisor and then go about catching up on my work. I had to speak to my direct report as well and alleviate any issues that arose for her while I was gone.
Everyone Knows Best
Another time consuming factor is fixing the damage that others do when they attempt to supervise your direct report. They don’t see it as interfering or overstepping their boundaries. They see it as helping. I’m just glad I’m in HR so I don’t have HR attempting to interfere as well.
Balancing Act
When you supervise someone your responsibility to them increases. That means that actions and comments, especially constructive criticism, needs to be carefully thought out. It’s difficult to maintain a proper professional relationship while making sure that communication remains open. Supervisors walk a fine line between friend and disciplinary.
I think it’s time to reread First, Break All the Rules.
August 11, 2008 at 8:04 am
Great post! And I love First, Break All the Rules too — the section in that book at how to look at letting an employee go was like an epiphany for me — totally changed the way I think about/handle terminations.
Congratulations on the new blog name!
August 11, 2008 at 10:32 am
@AMA - FBAR was the first real HR/business book I ever read. It remains one of my favorites.
August 12, 2008 at 9:38 am
I’ve never read FIRST BREAK ALL THE RULES because I thought — why am I going to read a book on breaking rules? That doesn’t seem very avant garde or rule-breaky.
August 12, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I had to read that book for my undergrad in biz/hr management. I liked it, but it seems like the authors are now On A Rampage to be Out Of The Box on everything and that is a bit annoying. (But lucrative, apparently)
August 12, 2008 at 8:04 pm
@Laurie - It’s a good quick read. It’s all common sense so you’re not missing anything but not reading it but it might be good for a library checkout.
@HRWench - I need to follow authors more carefully. They probably just got bit my the money bug. Funny how your credibility goes away when you’re just cranking stuff out for cash.
September 1, 2008 at 3:47 pm
[...] at IHateHR laments on the challenges of being a good supervisor, saying “In addition to worrying about yourself and your career you have to worry about others [...]
September 2, 2008 at 5:55 am
[...] at IHateHR laments on the challenges of being a good supervisor, saying “In addition to worrying about yourself and your career you have to worry about others [...]